The only person the group knows with a boat who can help is Darren, who agrees in exchange for Savannah’s allowance for the next six months. Ben and Griffin go to Melissa’s house to look at the camera feeds and devise a plan to do the break-in at midnight in a couple of days. As they watch the live feeds, a creature claws at the camera Melissa left inside the zoo, and the feed goes dark. Ben and Melissa are apprehensive, but without proof of what they think they saw, Griffin says they have to go with the plan because “the countdown was on” (84).

On the night of the zoobreak, Darren doesn’t show up on time. The group is furious, but Melissa suggests they wait longer just in case Darren does show up. While they argue about what to do, they realize Ben is missing. They find him asleep in an old rowboat, and when he asks if Darren is there yet, Griffin doesn’t respond because he’s too busy focusing on the “two wooden oars lying inside the old dory” (90).